Now and then I create an APBA player card in APBA Baseball for Windows 5.75. Wizard is not around anymore, but Player Editor in Advanced Draft can do the same thing.

I create a new data disk in Advanced Draft, then import a player from a farm team on one of the seasons disks I own. I try to choose one that played as little as possible. I import him into the disk I created (U-fun), and I change his name, stats, card, etc. with player editor. My favorite player I ever created this way I named Eli Schumpert. He was an excellent player in overall ability, but not amazing in any one area. I put him on the Boston Red Sox in a 1954 replay and on the St. Louis Cardinals in a 1971 replay. I also added 1998 McGwire, 1954 Jackie Jensen, and 1954 Minnie Minoso. I brought Jensen to 1971 because I enjoyed him on the ’54 Sox. I brought Minoso to 1971 because he was a nightmare against the Red Sox in the ’54 replay. Perhaps needless to say, the ’71 Cards won their division in the replay. It was a lot fun because Willie Stargell hit 63 home runs, but with McGwire come from the future, he did not lead the league in home runs. McGwire hit 74.

Anyway, back to the point of this post.

In creating these players, I just guess at how they will perform. Schumpert was a curiosity for me because I gave him a 3, 4, and 6 as well as a 1. This gave him a lot of extra base hits, but not a lot of homers (23 in the 1954 replay).

A few days ago, I realized I could use an invented player to figure out exactly what the result numbers 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and other numbers produce.

Test Dummy

I made a player that I named Test Dummy using the method described above. I gave him three 3’s, three 8’s, and I changed all the other hit numbers to numbers between 26 and 32. Then I put him on the Houston Astros and reduced their offensive roster to just eight players, including Test Dummy. I had Duke Robinson, Jr. manage all the teams, set AIM to no injuries or fatigue, and I ran the whole season on automatic in background.

On my computer the season took about 20 minutes. Test Dummy hit 12 doubles, 49 triples, and no homers in 721 plate appearances. The three 8’s got him 42 singles. I did rough calculations and figured that the 8’s were producing hits about 2/3 of the time.

I ran that replay two more times and got similar results. Test Dummy did get 6 home runs off those 3s between the other two replays.

I ran those replays late at night. The next day, less tired, I made a couple improvements. First, I quit running the American League with the National League, cutting the replay time in half. Second, I gave Test Dummy all one number so that I did not have to guess how often a result number actually came up. Here are the results.

Test Dummy in the 1992 NL, with a spread of pitchers handled by micromanager Alexander Cartwright:

All 8s on card: .605 batting avg.
All 9s on card: .703 batting avg.

And here I thought 8s were better than 9s! Apparently not in the 1992 National League!

I’ll do some other numbers over the next few days, and I might try them in other years and other leagues.